Episode 265: Lauren Onak, the Vice-Presidential Candidate for the American Solidarity Party (August 9, 2023)

In this episode of The Open Door , panelists Jim Hanink and Valierie Niemeyer interview Lauren Onak, the new vice presidential candidate of the American Solidarity Party. Lauren was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She studied English Literature at Barnard College of Columbia University and received a Masters in Adolescent Education from Hunter College. Onak is a stay at home mom to three young children and lives in the Boston suburbs. She teaches natural family planning and is active in several community organizations. Among the questions we’ll be asking are the following. Please feel free to ask your own!

1. Lauren, can you share some of your back story with us? Back before you joined the American Solidarity Party?
2. Tell us about your discernment process when invited to represent the American Solidarity Party as vice presidential candidate alongside Peter Sonski. Why did you say yes to such a weighty commitment?
3. The American Solidarity Party believes strongly in the principle of subsidiarity, a principle that reflects the social teaching of the Catholic Church. How do you explain subsidiarity to folks who aren’t familiar with it?
4. How do strong communities relate to this principle of subsidiarity?
5. We also affirm the importance of solidarity, and living it out both personally and collectively. Can you give us some examples of what solidarity looks like or could look like from the personal to the national and even international level?
6. Dorothy Day, the co-founder of The Catholic Worker Movement, once said that we don’t want to trade one poverty for a worse poverty. What do you think that she meant?
7. At one point Day also said that more than ever she believed we need to foster personal responsibility. How can we balance that with concrete expressions of personal and collective solidarity?
8. How does the evangelical counsel of a personal and even communal commitment to voluntary poverty relate to this dynamic?
9. As a stay-at-home mother, how have you sought to strengthen the communities in which you live? What are your hopes for the future in that regard?
10. What’s it like so far on the campaign trail?